Rocky De La Fuente

Rocky De La Fuente
De La Fuente in 2016
Born	Roque De La Fuente Guerra (1954-10-10) October 10, 1954 San Diego, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Other names	Rocky
Citizenship	United States
Political party	Democratic (before 2016) Reform (2016–present)
Website	www.rocky2016.com

Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente (born October 10, 1954)^[1] is an American businessman, political activist, and politician. He was the unsuccessful nominee of the Reform Party and that of his self-created American Delta Party for President of the United States in the 2016 election. De La Fuente was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination in Florida's 2016 election for United States Senator and for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2016 primaries.

Early life

De La Fuente was born on October 10, 1954^[2] at Mercy Hospital in San Diego, California, the son of Roque Antonio De La Fuente Alexander and Bertha Guerra Yzaguirre. His parents raised him in Mexico (Mexico City, Tijuana, Baja California), and in the United States (San Diego, and Anaheim, California). He was educated by his parents and the Legionaries of Christ, the Marist Brothers, the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart, Daughters of the Holy Spirit and the Jesuits. As a youth, De La Fuente attended Saint Catherine's Military Academy in Anaheim, California and then earned a B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from the Instituto Patria National Autonomous University of Mexico, and studied Accounting & Business Administration at Anahuac University near Mexico City.^[3][4]

Career

Between 1976 and 1990, De La Fuente acquired automobile dealerships from Alfa Romeo, American Motors Corporation, Audi, Cadillac, Chrysler, Daihatsu, Dodge, GMC, Honda, and others.^[3] He also opened eleven currency exchange locations in the United States and Mexico.^[5]

In 2004, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation issued an order barring De La Fuente from participating in an FDIC-insured institution. De La Fuente appealed and the 9th Circuit reversed half the order and advised the FDIC to reconsider its sentence, stating that "De La Fuente's use of FIB as his personal piggy bank was in shocking disregard of sound banking practices and the law to the detriment of depositors, shareholders, and the public.  Nevertheless, we remand this matter to the Board for it to consider, in light of this disposition, whether this extraordinary sanction remains deserved."^[4][6] In November 2015, De La Fuente and the city of San Diego reached settlement in a decades-long legal dispute over land-use issues regarding a 312-acre area that De La Fuente is developing in Otay Mesa.^[7]

He owns businesses and properties in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, United States, and Uruguay.^[3]

Political campaigns

Rocky 2016 LLC
Campaign	United States presidential election, 2016
Candidate	Rocky De La Fuente
Affiliation	Democratic Party
Status	Active
Headquarters	San Diego, California[8]
Key people	Steven Wendroff (campaign treasurer)[9]
Receipts	US$6,453,224 (6/30/2016[8])
Slogan	We The People
Website
Official website

2016 presidential campaign

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rocky De La Fuente presidential campaign, 2016.

De La Fuente ran a presidential campaign in the 2016 election. De La Fuente sought the Democratic Party's nomination during their presidential primaries. De La Fuente's campaign did not win a single primary or a single delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention. De La Fuente founded the American Delta Party and ran as that party's nominee with his running mate Michael Steinberg and was nominated as the presidential candidate of the Reform Party which had ballot access in Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota and Mississippi.^[10]

Democratic primary campaign

Wikinews has related news: Wikinews interviews Rocky De La Fuente, U.S. Democratic Party presidential candidate

De La Fuente filed his candidacy for President of the United States with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), filing as a Democrat. He identifies as a progressive Democrat. He says he was inspired to run after becoming dissatisfied with the slate of candidates, especially Donald Trump, whom he accuses of alienating large segments of the population.^{[1][11][12][13]}

On immigration, De La Fuente supports a path to citizenship and is against the wall along the Mexican border proposed by Trump.^[14]

Below is a table of the results of primaries in which De La Fuente competed during the Democratic primaries. The total number of votes De La Fuente received can be found in the Votes column. The rank in which De La Fuente came among candidates/ballot options can be found in the Place column.

De La Fuente at the Lesser-Known Candidates Presidential Forum

Map representing the ballot access of De La Fuente's Democratic Primary campaign

  On primary ballot

  On caucus ballot

  Write-in

  Not on ballot

De La Fuente seen talking to Jorge Ramos at the venue of the Iowa Brown and Black Forum

A.^ As a write-in 17 states: Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia^{[73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83]}

Third-party general election campaign

Ballot access for the American Delta and Reform Party

  On ballot

  Lawsuit pending

  Write-in

  Not on ballot

De La Fuente founded the American Delta Party as a vehicle to continue his campaign into the general election as a third-party candidate.^[84][85][86] His running mate is Michael Steinberg of Florida.^[87] On August 8, 2016, De La Fuente was named as the presidential nominee of the Reform Party.^[88]

De La Fuente had ballot access to 147 electoral votes in 20 states (Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Wyoming).^[89] He qualified as a write-in candidate in West Virginia, Indiana, Delaware, Nebraska and Arizona.^{[90][91][92][93]}

Campaign finances

Detailed below are the financial statements filled with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC)of Rocky 2016 LLC as of August 31, 2016.^[94]

Polls

De La Fuente's general election campaign has been included in few polls.

Nevada - Five-way race

2016 Senate campaign

On June 20, 2016, De La Fuente paid the $10,440 qualifying fee to run for the Democratic nomination of the 2016 Senate election in Florida to decide the Democratic nominee for the Senate seat occupied by Republican Marco Rubio). He competed with Patrick Murphy, Alan Grayson, Pam Keith, and Reginald Luster for the nomination.^[100][101] Murphy won the nomination; De La Fuente came in fourth-place out of five candidates, receiving 60,606 votes (5.38% of the overall vote).

References

External links

• Rocky 2016 campaign website
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Columnist Dave Barry on meeting De La Fuente
• "De La Fuente: The man challenging Clinton, Sanders". WOOD-TV. 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-03-05.